Yap & Yarn

It's time!

Get your needles at the ready for Yap & Yarn, which starts again on Monday 28th September at the Warehouse Buildings, Stromness, from 5pm - 7pm.

Pop along with your knitting or crochet and enjoy a chat and a cup of tea with fellow yarn lovers. All ages and abilities welcome and there will be help on hand for beginners to get you started.

You may remember the fantastic knitted Christmas tree that the Kirkwall group produced last year, and we thought it would be nice to have one of our own for our lovely new building.

If you would like to help us with this project then we would be delighted to receive donations of squares up to a maximum size of 21cm x 21cm (8 inches) in any shade of green and in various weights of yarn and stitch patterns. We would also love any knitted/crochet decorations for the finished tree.

Let the knitting begin!

Bookmarks and biscuits.

As we continue our preparations for the move to our lovely new building, we've been reflecting on our favourite memories of Stromness Library, and we would love to hear yours. 

Perhaps you remember coming to the library as a child and have memories of previous librarians, or you visited us while you were in Stromness on holiday. We would love to hear your stories, memories, favourite books and encounters with the library cats. 

Do please get in touch, either through the comments below or by dropping us an email. We are gathering all these stories from and about the library for our New Chapter exhibition which will celebrate the history of the library in Stromness when we move to the new building. We want to capture as many stories as we can from the most important part of any library - you, the people who visit it. 

Over the years we have worked here there have been many memorable moments, some funny, some sad, and some unrepeatable! 

Today we were recalling the many items we have found inside returned books. Along with the more predictable discoveries of bookmarks, letters, bills and the like, we can reveal that we once opened a book to discover a custard cream biscuit between the pages. Whether this had been inserted as makeshift book mark, or left behind by accident during a particularly exciting reading-while-biscuit-eating-session, we will never know. 

When we mentioned our find to a colleague in Kirkwall library, he claimed to have once come across a rasher of streaky bacon being used as a book mark. While we were unable to verify this claim, we would strongly discourage our readers from reading while eating a fried breakfast  - just in case.

If you are in need of a bookmark we have lots here to choose from, including our very own Orkney library bookmarks -  save the custard creams to go with your cup of tea!

Shawl knit-along

On Monday 3rd February the Yap and Yarn group meets in Stromness Library from 5-7pm, when Kaja will be starting her shawl knit-along. 

The pattern she will be using is the Ashton Shawlette by Dee O'Keefe which is available free to download from Ravelry.

 If you can't make it along to the meeting but would still like to take part in the knit-along then you can join in on the Yap and Yarn Facebook group, where you can post pictures of your progress and ask Kaja questions. 

And if you don't fancy tackling a shawl then just come along with whatever project you like and join us for a cuppa and a chat. 

© Dee O'Keefe

 

Somewhere Towards the End

A quick reminder that the Stromness Library Reading Group meet tomorrow evening, Wednesday 24th April at 7pm to discuss Diana Athill's biography Somewhere Towards the End. 
Described on the back cover as:

...a lively narrative of events, lovers and friendships: the people and experiences that have taught her to regret very little, to resist despondency and to question the beliefs and customs of her own generation.

We are hoping for an equally lively discussion from the group - so if you feel like joining us to tackle those longstanding taboos 'sex, religion and death' over a cup of tea or coffee then we will be very pleased to see you!

Holidays and Hedgehogs

Well, with the Shows over, the Community Learning Course Guide out, and the nights fair drawing in, winter can't be far away -  and so our thoughts turn to the books which will ease the passing of the dark winter evenings ahead of us.

If you would like some inspiration for your winter reading, and would like the chance to meet other book lovers to engage in lively debate over a hot beverage, then you'll be delighted to know the Stromness Library Reading Group will restart next Wednesday 22nd August.

Please note the change of date, we usually meet on the last Wednesday of the month but for this first meeting we will meet a week early due to staff holidays (no exotic destinations for us, a trip to Birsay for some sandcastle building and a Mr Whippy and we'll be happy).

Our first title is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery and there are still a couple of copies available from the library if anyone would like the chance to read it before the meeting. New members are always very welcome, we meet from 7-8pm in the Exhibition Room and, as previously mentioned, a range of hot beverages are available.